In rushing to measure their impact to meet requests for impact evaluation, they might just focus on the wrong things. E.g. proxy metrics that sound like good impact evaluation but aren’t very good indicators really. If measuring in their “own” timelines, rather than when asked, charities might have more scope and time to do it carefully.
I think there’s something to be said for just trying to do something really well and only subsequently stopping to take stock of what you have or haven’t achieved. (We’ve taken pretty much the opposite approach at Animal Advocacy Careers and I periodically wonder whether that was a mistake)
if you’re doing something that seems pretty clearly likely to be cost-effective, given the available evidence, spending resources on further evaluation might just be a waste.
Similarly, unless conducting and disseminating research is an important part of your theory of change, the research focus might be be a distraction if it doesn’t seem likely to affect your decision-making.
Some other, partly overlapping reasons:
In rushing to measure their impact to meet requests for impact evaluation, they might just focus on the wrong things. E.g. proxy metrics that sound like good impact evaluation but aren’t very good indicators really. If measuring in their “own” timelines, rather than when asked, charities might have more scope and time to do it carefully.
I think there’s something to be said for just trying to do something really well and only subsequently stopping to take stock of what you have or haven’t achieved. (We’ve taken pretty much the opposite approach at Animal Advocacy Careers and I periodically wonder whether that was a mistake)
if you’re doing something that seems pretty clearly likely to be cost-effective, given the available evidence, spending resources on further evaluation might just be a waste.
Similarly, unless conducting and disseminating research is an important part of your theory of change, the research focus might be be a distraction if it doesn’t seem likely to affect your decision-making.